Hawkeyes travel to familiar Ohio ground for No. 20

Iowa recruiting hit No. 20 on Monday, when Ohio safety Lance Billings announced on his Twitter account that he committed to the Hawkeyes.

Billings (5-11, 161 pounds) did a little bit of everything at Clearview High School (Lorain, Ohio), which also produced linebacker Anthony Hitchens, a former all-Big Ten player at Iowa and now Dallas Cowboy. Billings is a two-time All-Ohio selection. Last season, Billings caught 49 passes for 799 yards and nine touchdowns. He also had 26 carries for 328 yards and three touchdowns. On defense, Billings had 30 solo tackles, intercepted three passes and returned two of those interceptions for touchdowns.

Billings hasn't done much if any camping, so he doesn't have a huge profile. His only other offer before Iowa called him Monday morning was from Ball State. Iowa called Monday morning and Billings said he was in before the call ended.

'I spoke to the Iowa coaches today and it was actually Kelvin Bell, one of the recruiting coaches (director of on-campus recruiting) who told me I had the offer,” Billings told HawkeyeReport.com. 'I told him I want to be there and then he put (head) coach (Kirk) Ferentz on the phone and he was excited to hear the news and he said he can't wait for me to get there. He said he's excited about me as a player and he's glad I want to be a Hawkeye.”

Billings is being recruited as a defensive back, either corner or safety. Just going off the numbers and what he's been asked to do at Clearview, including return kicks and punts, he could do a lot of things at Iowa.

'He's a phenomenal athlete. No matter where he is on the field, he immediately becomes a difference maker,” Clearview coach Mike Collier told the Chronicle-Telegram (Ohio) last December. 'He's a jack-of-all-trades and he's fun to watch.”

Billings scored 31 percent of his team's points, including at least one touchdown in every game. In a 57-28 victory over Fairview, Billings scored on a 97-yard run.

'I knew I had to go out and make a play,” Billings told the Chronicle-Telegram. 'I told coach, ‘If you give me the ball, I'm going to take it to the house.' Probably the hardest I ever ran was on that play. I wasn't going to stop until I was sure I was in the end zone.”

Billings told HawkeyeReport that he doesn't have a personal relationship with Hitchens, but has worked out with and played some pickup basketball against him.

'My coaches here have told me how much he loved it at Iowa and how great Iowa was for him,” Billings told HawkeyeReport. 'It made the decision much easier because he went here and then went to Iowa and now he's in the NFL. I feel like I can go there and hopefully do the same thing.”

Billings was the third of three commitments Iowa picked up on Monday, all defensive players (defensive end Romeo McKnight and cornerback Cedric Boswell). The Hawkeyes now have 20 commitments for the 2016 class. Ferentz has said since February that this class would likely be in the mid-20s. The national signing period begins Feb. 4.

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